Mrs. Nordstrom's Kindergarten Blog

Today completes our class Getting to Know You poems each morning. Everyone has now had a turn to share their favorite color, food and how old they are. We are excited to start learning some new poems in the weeks ahead!

We ended the week with a nature walk around the school. The kids were excited to see the beautiful leaves changing colors. We even saw leaves falling all around us! The letters we focused on this week were Cc, Oo, Aa, Dd, Qq and Gg. We practiced saying the letters, along with forming them properly. We also practiced saying, not singing, the alphabet. Ask you kiddo if he or she can do this. This afternoon was our first practice lockdown. The kids handled it really well. I didn't share with them exactly "why" we would do a real lockdown, instead I told them that we were "hiding" from Mr. Cawcutt and we had to make it look like no one was in our classroom. If you would like to have further discussions at home that is up to you, but for now I don't want the kindergarten kiddos to worry about their safety at school. On that note, check out our Facebook page for updated pictures and more daily updates of what has been going on in our classroom. Enjoy the beautiful weekend :)

This week we have been working on sorting by color, shape and size. The kids are picking up on this skill very quickly! Yesterday we focused on the letter Cc and Oo. Today it was Aa and Dd. We chose these letters based on the way the lowercase letters are formed. The kids were pumped today that their Read to Self stamina increased to 12 minutes! They could have made it longer but we had to stop for recess. This afternoon we painted fall trees using Q-tips. Have a great night everyone.

I love this group! Mrs. N. was not feeling very well the past two days. The cold bug has hit me hard. They were so concerned today, "Mrs. N. you don't look so good." "Mrs. N. you look different today." Yes, I am wearing a sweatshirt and jeans! Best advice of the day was, "Mrs. N. you should have some tea it might help you. Yes, Mrs. N. camomile tea would be perfect!" They were very happy when I went and got myself some tea. Couldn't find any camomile in my desk drawer though!

We ended our apple unit today by making applesauce. The kids each had a chance to use the Apple Master apple peeler. They thought that was pretty cool! We read the applesauce recipe together and talked about how we use our reading skills when cooking. Our room smelled amazing today as our applesauce cooked. Many of the kiddos weren't all that fond of the applesauce, but I was happy that they all tried it! Our energy level was very high this afternoon so we sang songs from Frozen while working on a shape project and did a little dancing as well. Look for the homework packets that went home today and the letter attached to them. Also, check out the backside of today's newsletter for the I can statements we have been working on. Have a great weekend.

Today we painted for the first time! First we looked at pictures of apple trees at various seasons. The kiddos were to pick a season to paint. Some of the trees resembled apple trees, some turned into rainbow trees! The kids had a blast painting them though and that is what is really important. Tomorrow we will be having an apple tasting to see which color apple is our favorite to eat.

This week we have continued to learn about shapes and colors. We also introduced rhyming. The focus for right now is being able to hear rhyming words. As we progress we will want to be able to produce a rhyme for a word. For example if I say, "drop" the students could produce a word such as "stop." During our Daily 5 time we introduced listen to reading on our iPads. The kiddos were excited to listen to a book of their choice. Tomorrow we will continue learning about apples.

It amazes me how fast the kiddos become accustom to the routine and quickly made new friendships. I have attached the newsletter. Check this out to see what skills we worked on this week. Next week our first book order is due and we will begin checking out books from the library. Have a great weekend!

Today we learned that we can read a book 3 different ways! A lot of the kids were telling me that they didn't know how to read. I assured them that they can ALL read because the first way we learn to read is by reading the pictures! I demonstrated this by using a Pete the Cat book we had never read before. Instead of reading the words, I created my own story by looking at what was happening in the illustrations. We then practiced reading pictures. Tomorrow we practice retelling. The kids were very quick to figure out the reading words was the third way to read a book. It was fun to see how many kiddos chose reading today during free play.